A police investigation is ongoing into a Cardiff car crash that killed three people and left two severely injured.
The group of five disappeared after meeting on a night out in Newport and lay undiscovered in the wreckage for up to 46 hours before they were found.
Eve Smith, 21, Darcy Ross, 21 and Rafel Jeanne, 24, died after the car they were travelling in came off the A48(M) and crashed into trees. Sophie Russon, 20, and Shane Loughlin, 32, remain in critical condition in hospital.
The crashed car was found in the early hours of Monday morning almost two days after the group was last seen around 2am on Saturday.
Who are the victims?
The three women, all from the Maesglas area of Newport, had been friends since primary school. They met at the Muffler bar and club in Maesglas in Newport on Friday evening. The three women are believed to have met Mr Loughlin and Mr Jeanne, both from Cardiff, that night in the club.
Ms Smith’s father Everton Smith spoke in front of floral tributes laid for his daughter in Newport’s Commercial Street on Thursday, the BBC reported.
He said his daughter was “everything a father could wish for”.
“It’s going to change my life, I don’t know how much it will,” Mr Smith said.
“Nothing will be the same. I just need her here to get me through this. This is an impossible situation.”
Smith’s death comes eight years after her sister Xana Doyle, 19, was killed in a car crash.
The driver, who was twice the drink-drive limit, was prosecuted and Smith took part in a Sky TV documentary about the incident and campaigned for tougher sentences.
“This is like nothing anyone could expect to go through, it’s like deja vu,” Mr Smith said.
Mr Jeanne-Actie’s former school paid tribute to him describing him as a “joyful pupil, full of life and energy at school, popular within his year group and a very sincere friend”.
Where did the group go?
The 65-mile round trip began with Sophie Russon, Eve Smith, and Darcy Ross, all from Newport, at the Muffler bar and club in Maesglas in Newport on Friday evening. Ms Smith’s car was still parked outside the bar on Sunday.
After meeting Mr Loughlin and Mr Jeanne in the club, the group travelled to Trecco Bay Holiday Park in Porthcawl together.
A caravan at the holiday park where the group are understood to have stayed before the accident was cordoned off this week.
Police are aware of a noise complaint made to the park’s security lodge about the group.
The group left Porthcawl and headed back to Cardiff where they were last seen in the Pentwyn area at around 2am.
It was originally reported that the group was last seen in the Llanedeyrn area, but an updated statement from police on Tuesday confirmed that was incorrect.
Police said they are probing reports the group dropped off an unnamed sixth passenger at his home in Cardiff.
Family and friends said the group stopped being active at around 2am on Saturday morning.
The caravan park altercation
Police are reportedly probing an altercation that took place at Trecco Bay caravan park in Porthcawl, where the group travelled 40 miles to after leaving the Muffler bar in Newport last Friday night.
It is believed Mr Loughlin’s family have a caravan at the Trecco Bay site.
However, it is understood that the possible altercation does not form an integral part of the police invesigation.
When was the first missing person report made?
The first missing person report was made to Gwent Police at 7.34pm on Saturday, March 4. Further missing person reports were made to Gwent Police at 7.43pm and 9.32pm on the same night. A further missing person report was made to South Wales Police at 5.37pm on Sunday, March 5.
Gwent Police issued a public appeal for the missing five at 11pm on Sunday, an hour or so before the wreckage was found at 12.15am.
The mother of victim Sophie Russons claimed police told her to “stop ringing” the station for updates.
Anna Certowicz, 42, told the Daily Mail that something “must be wrong” after not having heard from her or her friends Eve Smith and Darcy Ross.
Ms Certowicz, 42, said she drove around the Gwent and Cardiff areas in a desperate search for her daughter.
She told the Daily Mail: “They didn’t seem to care. I had to drive to Cardiff to knock on doors myself because they were doing s*d all. They just didn’t seem to think it was worth investigating. It was so frustrating.
“I think they assumed that Sophie was hungover somewhere, but she’s a sensible girl who works in a bank and hasn’t taken a day off for three years.
“She’s not someone who’s out clubbing in Cardiff all the time. On Friday nights she’s more likely to be babysitting so other people can go out. She wouldn’t just vanish like this unless something was wrong.
“The police asked me to stop ringing but at the end of the day I’m a mum I’m going to worry.”
The group lay undiscovered for up to 46 hours
At 12.02am on Monday, March 6, Gwent Police confirmed it had found the VW Tiguan the group had travelled in near a roundabout in the St Mellons area and that it had crashed on the A48 at St Mellons.
The vehicle veered off a slip road and came to rest in a small copse of evergreen trees, shielded from nearby houses and a busy garden centre.
A friend of the victims has claimed that it was members of the public who found the missing five, not the police.
However, police have hit back at this claim. In a joint statement, police said that shortly before midnight on Sunday, a police helicopter “was requested to search an area of Cardiff which resulted in a vehicle being located in a wooded area off the A48.”
Two officers in the area then arrived to discover the Volkswagen Tiguan, the statement said.
One friend, Tamzin Samuels, 20, told Sky News: “I do think the police could have done a lot more in putting the helicopters out earlier. They only posted the appeal an hour before the girls were found.
“The search party found the girls before the police found the girls. I think that speaks volumes really, they had all that equipment, and we had cars when we were looking.”
The group lay undiscovered for up to 46 hours. Police are now trying to work out the exact time of the crash. They believe the collision happened during the early hours of Saturday, March 4, though the exact time is still to be confirmed by the investigation, which includes CCTV and ANPR inquiries. At this stage officers believe only one vehicle to be involved.
Survivor is ‘unrecognisable’ after being trapped for 2 days
Sophie Russon, 20, was critically injured in the crash and remains in hospital. Her mother Anna Certowicz said the impact left her daughter with burns from her seatbelt and that she was suspended inside the car and unable to reach for her phone.
She said: “She had panic attacks throughout the night when she came round so they sedated her. She’s in shock and has a lot of injuries. You can’t recognise her.”
Speaking to The Sun she continued: “There’s no words to describe it. I can’t imagine how long it’s going to take for her to get over this. She’s going to need a lot of support. I’m heartbroken for the families of Eve and Darcy. They’ve lost a child at the end of the day. I nearly lost mine.”
Police are appealing for witnesses
Police are appealing for witnesses, including anyone who was travelling east along the A48 Eastern Avenue between Cardiff and the St Mellons off-slip, which links to the roundabout of the A48, B4487 and Cypress Drive near Cardiff Garden Centre, also known as Blooms Garden Centre.
Anyone with dashcam footage from the area around the time of the crash is asked to come forward.
IOPC investigation is under way
Gwent Police and South Wales Police have referred themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). The organisation has confirmed that it has decided to investigate how the missing person reports were handled.
David Ford, IOPC director, said: “After careful assessment of referrals from Gwent Police and South Wales Police, we have decided to independently investigate how police responded to the missing person reports.
“We will be examining what information police had, the grading given to any risk assessments and the steps taken by police to locate the missing people prior to the Volkswagen Tiguan being found just after midnight on Monday.
“We will also consider what communication took place between the two forces and whether police action was appropriate and followed relevant policy and procedures.”
